Where can you find recently funded startups for free?
The best free list of recently funded US startups is the SEC's own feed of Form D filings, because it lists private rounds whether or not anyone writes about them. News sites cover the rounds that get announced. Use both:
| Source | What it covers | How fresh | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEC EDGAR, Form D filings | US private offerings under Rule 504, Rule 506 or Section 4(a)(5) | Due within 15 days of the first sale | Free, with an RSS feed |
| Crunchbase News weekly roundup | The 10 biggest announced US rounds each week | Weekly | Free |
| Crunchbase Daily newsletter | Recent rounds, acquisitions and other news | Daily | Email sign-up |
| TechCrunch Fundraising section | Rounds TechCrunch reports on | Daily | Free to read |
| Y Combinator startup directory | YC companies, including the current batch | Each batch | Free |
| Crunchbase Pro | Searchable funding database | Ongoing | Paid; exports up to 2,000 rows a month |
The news sources lean towards big rounds. The Crunchbase News roundup for 17 to 23 October 2026 ran from Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion Series E down to a $160 million Series A in tenth place. Companies raising that much are rarely the first buyers for a small team. Form D filings also cover smaller private raises, which a top-10 roundup like this one leaves out.
Y Combinator is a useful special case: its standard deal is a $500,000 investment in every company it accepts, committed the day the company is accepted. So the newest batch in YC's startup directory (Fall 2026, according to the page's own data on 24 October 2026) is a list of startups that YC has just committed $500,000 to.
What is in a Form D filing?
A Form D tells you who raised, roughly how much, when the first investor committed and who runs the company. The SEC's Form D guidance says a company must file the notice within 15 days after the first sale of securities in an offering made under Rule 504 or 506 of Regulation D or Section 4(a)(5). The date of first sale is the date the first investor is irrevocably committed to invest. Filing is free and done online through EDGAR.
The fields that matter for prospecting, from the form itself:
- Item 3, Related Persons: the full name of each executive officer and director, and of anyone who acted as a promoter.
- Item 4, Industry Group: one category, such as Other Technology, Biotechnology or Pooled Investment Fund.
- Item 5, Issuer Size: a revenue range, or "Decline to Disclose".
- Item 7, Type of Filing: new notice or amendment, and the date of first sale.
- Item 13, Offering and Sales Amounts: the total offering amount and how much has been sold so far.
Two limits. Form D covers only the offering types above, so a raise made another way will not appear. And the form shows money raised, not what it is for. For that you still need the announcement, the careers page or a conversation.
What does one day of Form D filings look like?
On the day we checked, most new Form D filings came from investment funds, not startups. We counted every new Form D in EDGAR's daily form indexes for Monday 19 to Friday 23 October 2026: 827 new-notice entries and 454 amendment entries (819 and 450 separate filings, as some filings name more than one issuer). Then we opened all 176 new-notice entries (175 filings; one fund filing names two issuers) in the index for 21 October and read each one's industry group, revenue range and date of first sale.
| New Form D notices on 21 Oct 2026 | Count |
|---|---|
| All new notices | 176 |
| Pooled Investment Fund | 103 |
| Everything else | 73 |
| Of those 73: Other Technology | 17 |
| Of those 73: revenue "Decline to Disclose" | 59 |
| Of those 73: gave a date of first sale | 62 |
| Of those 62: filed within 15 days of the first sale | 38 |
| Of those 62: filed more than 90 days after it | 12 |
What this means for your list:
- Filter first. 103 of 176 notices (59%) were pooled investment funds. Skip that industry group and you remove more than half the noise.
- The tech list is short. That day gave 17 filers in Other Technology, a list you can check by hand.
- Check the date of first sale. Most filers were recent, but 12 of 62 filed more than three months after their first sale. Those are old news.
- Ignore revenue. 59 of 73 non-fund filers declined to disclose it.
One filing from the same week shows how the sources line up. Xona Space Systems' Form D, filed on 23 October 2026, gives a first sale on 8 October, $238,959,659 sold out of a $253,459,641 offering, 28 investors, and five related persons: one executive officer, who is also a director, and four other directors. Crunchbase News listed the same company's $250 million Series D in that week's roundup.
How do you turn Form D filings into a daily list?
Open EDGAR's latest filings page filtered to form type D, skip the funds, and check each remaining company against your ideal customer in about a minute. A routine of about 20 minutes, plus 2 minutes for each company you keep:
Open the latest Form D filings
Set the form type to D. The page has an RSS feed, so you can pipe it into a reader or a Slack channel instead of visiting.
Skip funds and old rounds
Open the html version of each filing. Move on if Item 4 says Pooled Investment Fund, or if the date of first sale is more than a month old.
Check fit
Look up the company's website. Does it match your buyer on industry, size and model? Keep the ones that do in a sheet with the amount sold and the filing date.
Add a second signal
Look for a job ad, a launch or a new hire that connects the raise to what you sell. Our guide to using job postings as buying signals shows what each kind of ad tells you.
Add the Crunchbase Daily and TechCrunch's Fundraising section for rounds outside the US or announced before a filing appears. For more free triggers to stack with funding, see our list of buying signals for small teams.
When should you contact a company after it raises?
Contact it once you can connect the raise to a need you can see, and while the news is still under a month old. Funding on its own says the company has money. It does not say it needs you. Pair it with one of these before you write:
| Funding plus | What it suggests | Who to write to |
|---|---|---|
| A job ad for work you automate | The team is hiring for a job you help with | The hiring manager |
| A new senior hire in your buyer's function | A new leader who may be choosing tools | That person, after their first few weeks |
| A launch or a new market | New work for sales, marketing or support | The head of that team |
| Nothing else visible | Weak signal on its own | Wait, or send one low-pressure note |
The Form D gives you names, but not all of them are buyers. Write to the executive officer or the head of the team you help, not to every name in Item 3. Our guide to how many people to contact at one company covers who to write to first and when to add one or two colleagues.
What should you say to a startup that just raised?
Mention the raise in one clause, then talk about the job it creates. The obvious opener, "Congrats on the round! Now that you have budget...", is one any vendor reading the same filing can send. Here are four we wrote for this guide; they have no measured reply rates behind them.
- Funding plus a job ad. "Hi [name], saw [company] closed its [round] and is hiring a [role]. Teams that hire for [work] usually spend the first months on [painful task]. We cut that to [result]. Worth a look before the new hire starts?"
- Funding plus a launch. "Hi [name], congratulations on the [round] and the [launch]. More customers usually means more [support tickets, invoices, onboarding calls]. How are you handling that today?"
- Funding only, low pressure. "Hi [name], noticed the new round at [company]. No pitch: I wrote up [the three mistakes teams make when they scale X] after working with [type of company]. Want it?"
- To a new leader. "Hi [name], congrats on joining [company] as [title]. When you're ready to review how the team handles [process], I'm happy to share what [similar companies] changed first."
Keep the first message under 90 words, ask one question, and leave the meeting link out until they reply. Our cold email templates have more openers to adapt.
If you'd rather not build this list by hand, Siela's AI SDR looks for signals such as recent funding and hiring for the work you automate, and "company raised funding" is one of the extra signals you can switch on. Each lead it finds gets a hot, warm or cold score with a one-line reason.
Frequently asked questions
How soon after raising does a startup file Form D?
The SEC requires the notice within 15 days after the first sale of securities in offerings under Rule 504, Rule 506 or Section 4(a)(5). The first sale is the date the first investor is irrevocably committed to invest. In our count of new filings on 21 October 2026, 38 of 62 non-fund filers that gave a date filed within 15 days, and 12 filed more than 90 days late.
Is SEC Form D data free to use?
Yes. Form D notices are public on the SEC's EDGAR system, which has a latest-filings page that can be filtered to form type D and offers an RSS feed. Daily form indexes list every filing by type. Each notice shows the company, its industry group, the amounts offered and sold, the date of first sale and the names of executive officers and directors.
Why are most Form D filings not startups?
Investment funds file Form D too, because they raise money privately from investors. On 21 October 2026, 103 of the 176 new Form D notices on EDGAR listed Pooled Investment Fund as their industry group. Filter that group out first, and check Other Technology and similar categories for operating companies.
Does every funded startup file a Form D?
No. The SEC's guidance says Form D is required for offerings made under Rule 504 or 506 of Regulation D or Section 4(a)(5) of the Securities Act. Raises made another way, and companies outside the US, may not appear. Use announcement sources such as Crunchbase News and TechCrunch alongside EDGAR to fill the gaps.
Is it worth paying for a funding database?
Only if free sources leave gaps you need to fill every week. EDGAR covers many US private rounds at no cost, and news sites cover announced ones. A paid tool such as Crunchbase Pro adds search, alerts and exports, up to 2,000 rows a month on Pro. Test the free routine for two weeks and count how many fitting companies it gives you first.
Sources
- SEC: Filing a Form D notice (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- SEC: Form D (form and instructions, PDF) (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- SEC EDGAR: Latest filings, form type D (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- SEC EDGAR: Daily index, 2026 Q4 (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- SEC EDGAR: Daily form index, 21 October 2026 (21 Oct 2026)
- SEC EDGAR: Xona Space Systems Inc., Form D (filed 23 Oct 2026)
- Crunchbase News: The Week's 10 Biggest Funding Rounds (Joanna Glasner) (23 Oct 2026)
- Crunchbase News: The Crunchbase Daily (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Crunchbase: Crunchbase Pro (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- TechCrunch: Fundraising (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Y Combinator: The YC Deal (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Y Combinator: The YC Startup Directory (checked 24 Oct 2026)